best of myself

Last night I was reading through a devotional and one of the questions it asked was how do you save the best of yourself for you and keep it from God and others. Man that's a hard question to think about. It took my brain in about 12 different directions. Thinking not just about God, but Matt, work, my family, friends, etc etc. 

I know technology isn't the root of all evil, but I swear life was different before I had my cell phone. I remember getting my cell phone when I turned 18. I had just started college and my family wanted a way to keep in touch with me. It was what we would consider now, giant. I remember I bought a fancy front plate cover for it and I thought I was so cool, it had sea turtles on it. If I had the ability to text I don't remember it. I truly believe that and college cemented my affair? with technology. I used the computer for everything, talking to professors, getting notes, reading over presentations from others, writing papers, posting to forums for class, talking to my friends, playing this ridiculous game of pool. We thought it was so cool that you could play pool on the computer. Facebook wasn't around, we used AIM and our schools blackboard to keep in touch. Even without Facebook and the other changes to the internet we were still glued to the computer.

I realize that technology isn't the only thing that keeps you from giving over all of yourself but I think it is the biggest way that I personally stop from giving all of myself. It's easy to say you need to check the bank account oh and while you're there just open up Pinterest, right? If Mom calls there's no harm in continuing to pin right? I can read a devotional online, right? Oh, look someone sent me a facebook message! And on and on, I think I use it as a crutch. I allow myself to give more of a me to a virtual world than the real world. I realize I am saying this on a blog but I think it's to give myself accountability. 

There are so many times where I have free time and instead of calling a friend or walking the dogs or giving my full attention to reading the Bible or talking to Matt I have the computer open or my blackberry in my hand. How do you even begin to give the best of yourself when you're not even giving all of your attention to someone? 

So I have some new rules that I am going to try and implement for myself. I am going to put down the phone and computer (and turn the phone on silent in some of these cases) during the following times:

- quiet time

-when I'm reading the Bible

-when Matt and I are eating and having date nights

-when I'm talking to family and friends on the phone (one funny thing is my family often calls with computer issues or asking me to find something for them or unlock an email account, etc. I will still help them then :))

I will not have the computer open all night from the time I finish walking the dogs to when we go to bed. I will have a time limit. I will not spend all weekend pinning! 

Obviously this is going to take some time and I'm not going to be perfect. But, I'm going to try so that eventually I can ask the question now that I'm giving you more of my attention how do I keep the best of myself for me? Obviously one part of this answer is my time and attention, however it's not all. Hopefully soon I can delve a little deeper in to that, after I start giving just a little but more of me to others.